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TV
Show & Tell, 1970
I learned television in a master's degree program at Syracuse University in 1969-70. Things were different then. The Newhouse TV studios had not yet been built, nor the present library. We had a small studio in the basement of the old library, equipped with black and white cameras. In those days, not every camera had a zoom lens. Many had turrets which would rotate one fixed lens or another into position. To make sure that your intended camera location and lens choice would give you the correct field of view, you could experiment with the actual camera. Lacking that, you could look through something like this cardboard viewing gizmo.
Later Bud became a news anchor. He now hosts a talk radio show on 540 WFLA (actually WFLF) in Orlando. On March 18, 1970, our fifth live-to-tape student production at public TV station WCNY was produced by Patty and directed by Bud. They decided to attempt a daring technical innovation: rolling in a video tape segment. They'd recorded the tape earlier, using the recently-installed "quad" video tape machine at our small on-campus studio. Now, in the control room at WCNY, tension mounted as the time neared for the insert. When played on WCNY's machine, would the tape successfully lock into synchronization, or would the machine crash and leave the director with nothing to show? We held our breath as Assistant Director Edie McClurg counted down. Twenty seconds. Fifteen seconds. Ten seconds; roll the tape. Five seconds. Four. Three. We have speed. One. Take tape! The image from our on-campus studio appeared on the screen, and the control room erupted in cheers. There were hugs and cigars all around. No, not really, but someone did say "I feel like we just landed on the moon!" (Click here for a sketch of my Apollo 13 re-entry graphics.)
The card is drawn in Magic Marker on a piece of blue poster board not white, because actual white was too "hot" for the cameras. The thermometers are filled in with green Magic Marker, an ugly color combination; but the viewer wouldn't see it in color, so it didn't matter. Green shows up as gray, which the viewer will probably interpret as red because it's a thermometer.
On March 11, 1970, I directed a TV show about the history of radio. It featured a scripted studio discussion with five people around a table. As shown in the floor plan, each of my three cameras (using its wide 2-inch lens) could give me a "five-shot" covering the whole group of people. But with a tighter lens or a zoom lens, each camera could also shoot individuals or pairs or trios. If I followed the usual procedure and said "Camera 1, give me a two-shot," I'd have to further specify which two people I wanted included in that shot.
At one point in my notes, with Shots 22 and 32 already set up, I planned to say, "Ready 2, take 2." (We see Don, Vicki, and John.) "Shot 19. Camera 2, ready a slow zoom in to Shot 23; start your zoom." (Now we see John alone.) "Ready 1, take 1." (We see a re-establishing shot of all five people.) "Ready 2, take 2." (Back to John.) "Shot 14. Ready 1, take 1." (Mike.) "Ready 3, take 3." (Don.) "Shot 22. Ready 2, take 2." (Don, Vicki, and John.) And so on. The method is a bit mechanical, but if it were used for the same show day after day, it would probably become second nature.
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